Apocalypse
"Peace does nothing to test -- to INCREASE -- mutants' strength. To force them to evolve into the strong" Characteristics *Height- Variablearound 7 *Weight- 300IbsVariable *Eyes- Blue *Hair- None History Rise of Apocalypse Born in Egypt during the First Dynasty (around 3000 BC). Born with gray skin (although Apocalypse's skin color is sometimes depicted with different human pigment variations) and blue-lipped with natural facial markings, in the settlement of Akkaba, he was abandoned as an infant, but found by a band of desert nomads called the Sandstormers, whose leader, Baal, sees the child's potential power, decides to raise him as his own, and names him En Sabah Nur. He is taught the philosophy that the tribe lives and dies by: survival of the fittest. Nur and Baal are the only Sandstormers to survive on the day that General Ozymandias and his army destroy the Sandstormers tribe, as they find refuge in a sacred cave before it collapsed. Baal eventually dies from lack of nourishment after weeks of deprivation, but before he does, he admits to Nur that he had believed him to be a savior foretold in ancient prophecies who is destined to overthrow the pharaoh Rama-Tut. The young Nur vows to take revenge on the pharaoh and claim his destiny. He hides himself as a slave in Tut's city, where he has visions of Egyptian gods who reveal his great destiny. The pharaoh Rama-Tut, in actuality an earlier incarnation of Kang the Conqueror who had come back in time to locate the young Apocalypse and take him under his wing, tries to convince Nur to join him, but the young mutant savagely attacks the pharaoh only to be taken down by the conqueror's futuristic weapon. Nur survives, and tries to rescue Nephri, Ozymandias' sister, who had become attracted to the mysterious slave, but Nur is ultimately rejected by Nephri for his inhuman appearance, and she turns to her brother for protection in her panic. Heartbroken by this final rejection, En Sabah Nur's prodigious mutant abilities fully emerge in his enraged state, and he renames himself Apocalypse. Rama-Tut flees the former slave's rampage, while Nur uses his advanced technology to enslave and transform his former tormentor, Ozymandias, into a blind seer made of living stone, who would forever chronicle Apocalypse's future destinies. Fifty years later, Nur revisits Nephri, now an elderly Egyptian Queen on her deathbed, and mocks the loss of her beauty and vitality, in contrast to his own unchanged appearance, despite the passage of time. Early history As the millennia pass, Apocalypse travels around the world to determine if his time of testing had come. He appears throughout history, encouraging civilizations to worship him as a god from several ancient mythologies and testing their strength by manipulating them into fighting wars of conquest, and claiming to have brought "growth, judgment, and destruction". Apocalypse begins to beget progeny, who faithfully followed him as the Clan Akkaba. At some point, Apocalypse discovers advanced alien technology, which he uses to transform and enhance himself. Apocalypse now enters states of suspended animation, while he waits for mutants to become more common, leaving Clan Akkaba and Ozymandias to act in his stead while he sleeps. Apocalypse has some history of having fought the race of godlike immortals known as Eternals, primarily the members Ikaris and Sersi, having been referred to as their "Ancient Nemesis". In the 12th century, Apocalypse would re-encounter the Eternal Sersi, when he came across the crusader Bennet du Paris and awakens his latent mutant powers, transforming him into Exodus. In Victorian London, 1859, Apocalypse encounters Nathaniel Essex, a British scientist, and through him, learns the scientific term for beings like himself – mutant. Coercing Essex and members of the Hellfire Club into working for him, Apocalypse plots the first steps in his quest for global conflict on an unprecedented scale. He uses his advanced technology to transform Nathaniel into Mister Sinister, and commands him to create a plague to ravage and transmute the population of the world. At the same time, the mutant heroes Cyclops and Jean Grey (as Phoenix) had been sent back through time to stop Apocalypse. Close to slaying the British Royal Family, Apocalypse is suddenly greatly weakened, and Cyclops and Phoenix manage to defeat him. It is revealed that Sinister had betrayed Apocalypse, seeing his vision of the future as madness, and had instead created a plague that attacked only Apocalypse, forcing the ancient mutant into his hibernation sanctuary. In 1897, Apocalypse is awakened by his followers, in order to deal with Dracula, who is turning members of Clan Akkaba into vampires to battle Apocalypse, as revenge for his earlier defeat centuries ago as Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler). Apocalypse, with some assistance from Abraham Van Helsing, kills Dracula. The continuation of the Akkaba line is secured by Ozymandias through a disabled, but powerful, teleporter named Frederick Slade, who conceived with a woman. Modern era Apocalypse spends many years hidden, but awakes from his slumber by the arrival of the mysterious time-traveling mutant Cable (ironically, Cable had come to the present to prevent the ancient mutant's awakening). Awakened almost a century earlier than he had planned, Apocalypse decides to examine the world and determine its conditions for testing. He grants superhuman powers to the terrorist known as Moses Magnum, who does his bidding by testing the strong and winnowing the weak, battling the X-Men and the Avengers. Apocalypse first crosses paths with the original X-Men team (then organized as the mutant hunting group, X-Factor) when he briefly employs the Alliance of Evil, and orders them to capture the mutant Michael Nowlan. Apocalypse plans to use Nowlan's power-boosting mutation to provide mutantkind with unlimited power. This plan was foiled by the interference of the X-Factor team. Apocalypse later recruits mutants to serve as his Four Horsemen. Among them is Angel, whom Apocalypse saves from an exploding plane, granting him artificial wings (after he had lost his own natural wings) in exchange for his servitude. The X-Factor member is reborn as Death. Apocalypse summons the X-Factor team to his cloaked ship, which floats invisibly above the city. Apocalypse was interested in this group of mutants and had studied them, monitored their activities and researched their origins and motives after learning of Professor Xavier and the X-Men. Apocalypse explains his scheme to unleash his Horsemen and destroy New York, and offers X-Factor a place at his side. In the end, the Horsemen are defeated by X-Factor, thanks to the help of both the reformed Angel as well as Power Pack. Apocalypse leaves his Celestial Ship for them and in return, takes the willing Morlock Caliban. Afterwards, Apocalypse secretly takes some control over the ship, and it starts to fight X-Factor, but they regain control. Apocalypse escapes with Caliban to one of his bases at Mount Everest. During the Evolutionary War, Apocalypse, confronts the High Evolutionary who had embarked on a quest to rid the world of a lesser species that he felt were preventing evolution from moving forward. Believing that the Evolutionary was disrupting the natural order of things, Apocalypse commenced battle with Wyndham. In the end, because of the High Evolutionary's actions, it helped the species evolve and grow stronger which ironically helped Apocalypse's plan of weeding out the weak and forcing the strong to rise. Following the genetic manipulation of Caliban, Apocalypse is confronted by the Norse god Loki, who wants him to join his "Acts of Vengeance", but Apocalypse refuses and the two briefly fight. Sins of the Future Apocalypse learns of Sinister's intention to create an adversary powerful enough to destroy him: Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor. Apocalypse, viewing him as a threat and realizing that Nathan's energy is the very energy that awoke him all those months earlier, sends his newly formed group, the Riders of the Storm, to abduct the Summers child. Apocalypse at this time had conquered the city of Attilan, home of the Inhumans, and enslaved part of its population. X-Factor, alongside the Inhuman Royal Family, attacks Apocalypse's lunar stronghold. Although Apocalypse is severely defeated, the young Nathan is infected with a techno-organic virus, and is sent to the future with a woman named Askani to be cured. In the future, Apocalypse has conquered the world and ruled until the 39th century. By this time, Apocalypse's body had grown feeble; he becomes aware of the young Nathan's presence in this time, but only succeeds in kidnapping a clone of the child which the Askani created. Apocalypse plans to transfer his consciousness and power into the clone's stronger body, but perishes in combat with the (real) teenage Nathan. Nathan grows up to become the warrior Cable (while his clone grows up to become the mutant terrorist known as Stryfe) and travels back to the past to prevent Apocalypse's future domination of the planet. In the present, Apocalypse is prematurely awoken from his regeneration chamber by his Riders (now calling themselves, The Dark Riders), who inform their master that his Horsemen have kidnapped Cyclops and Jean Grey, supposedly under his instructions (in actuality, Mister Sinister, who was posing as Apocalypse). When attempting to rejuvenate himself again, Apocalypse is nearly killed by Stryfe who had arrived in the past to take revenge on Apocalypse. At the end of this conflict Apocalypse is presumed deceased due to his two recent attempts at regeneration having been interrupted. After a brief battle on the Moon with his former servants, the Dark Riders (who had joined Stryfe), Apocalypse is left for dead by Archangel. The Dark Rider's new leader, Genesis - the adopted son of Cable, who had traveled to the present to ensure Apocalypse's rise and exact revenge on his father - plans to resurrect Apocalypse by sacrificing the lives of the people in villages neighboring Akkaba. During this time, Wolverine is held captive by Genesis, who attempts to restore Wolverine's lost adamantium skeleton and turn him into a Horseman as a gift for Apocalypse. However, Wolverine breaks free and mutates into a feral state, and then kills Genesis along with nearly all of the Dark Riders. (Later, Apocalypse himself would repeat Genesis's scheme of reinforcing Wolverine's skeleton with adamantium again and brainwashing him into servitude, succeeding where Genesis had failed.) During the fight, Cannonball opens the sarcophagus containing Apocalypse's body, but finds it empty, and wonders if Genesis was either lying about Apocalypse, or was delusional, or maybe Apocalypse had gotten up and left by himself. It should be noted that Apocalypse was seen alive before this. Further schemes After a long healing slumber, Apocalypse, fully restored, awakens with Ozymandias at his side and quickly learns of the present danger: Onslaught. He observes the conflict between the psionic entity and Earth's heroes with Uatu the Watcher, who suggests to Apocalypse a course of action; an alliance with the one who hated him the most, Cable. Apocalypse surmises that Onslaught would be most vulnerable through the astral plane, and that he needs Cable for actual physical transportation to this realm. Once on the astral plane, Apocalypse would remove the captive Franklin Richards, greatly weakening Onslaught. The plan succeeds, but is interrupted by the Invisible Woman, who had invisibly accompanied the pair, having suspected Apocalypse's motive in wanting to actually kill her son. However, the reprieve in battle gave Onslaught the time to escape, prolonging the conflict. Following the events of the Onslaught saga, the gamma-spawned powerhouse, the Hulk and his human alter ego, Banner, are split into two separate entities; Hulk now draws upon energy derived from Franklin Richards' pocket universe; Apocalypse recruits the Hulk to become his Horseman, War, with intentions of using the Hulk's nexus-energy to overcome the Celestials. To test this newest recruit, Apocalypse set War against the New World Order, a shadow cabinet organization that intends to conquer the world. The New World Order in turn set the Juggernaut and the Absorbing Man against War, but both are easily defeated. However, Hulk comes to his senses after injuring his friend, Rick Jones. Despite this apparent setback, the incident was still a victory for Apocalypse as it was a successful testing of newly understood Celestial technology. Apocalypse activates the self-destruct mechanism on the sword of War, which the New World Order had obtained, destroying their headquarters. The Hellfire Club later awakens Apocalypse's long-hidden Harbinger from its deep sleep; originally a normal man, whom Apocalypse in the 19th century once left to incubate for 100 years. Apocalypse releases his Horseman (Caliban) and his scribe Ozymandias from his possession, to fend for themselves, if they were to survive the coming events. Cable with the Avengers battles the Harbinger, but are unable to stop it. Apocalypse then appears, activating a bomb inside the Harbinger which would destroy all of New York, but Cable manages to prevent this disaster. When Magneto is disrupting Earth's magnetic field, Apocalypse sends a Skrull impersonating the mutant Astra (having dealt with the original Astra) to stop the Master of Magnetism. Intending to start an all-out war between the humans and the subterranean-dwelling Deviants as part of his plan to test the strong, Apocalypse sets off nuclear warheads at Lemuria, causing the Deviants to further mutate (which also restores Ikaris's father Virako to life). Apocalypse launches an attack at San Francisco, using a mentally controlled Deviant, Karkas, now a gigantic monster, that the Eternals are forced to battle. Apocalypse is confronted by his centuries-old foe, Ikaris, who now is a Prime Eternal. Although, Apocalypse defeats Ikaris, the Eternal still succeeds in destroying his ship and thwarting his plan. The Twelve Supposedly lost diaries of the mutant seer Destiny surfaced, telling of twelve beings that could defeat Apocalypse once and for all. Various mutants, all listed in the prophecy, are abducted by Apocalypse's Horsemen including a faction of the Skrulls. The Twelve legend was in fact a ruse, orchestrated by Apocalypse himself; once the Twelve are assembled, Apocalypse intended to use them to transform himself into a godlike entity beyond the Celestials. It is revealed at the end of this story arc, that Apocalypse's physical form has been burned out due to the vast amount of energies he has under his control, forcing him to wear a bio-armor (like his future counterpart), and now plans to use Nate Grey as a host body for him to move his energy and consciousness into. The X-Men confront Apocalypse as he is close to merging with Nate, but are unable to stop him. Cyclops however, pushes Nate Grey out of the way, merging with Apocalypse instead. While the merge is successful, Apocalypse's aim for unlimited power is not, and he attempts to complete the transformation by warping reality into various scenarios (see Ages of Apocalypse). Apocalypse hoped to lull the Twelve into empowering him with their energy, but eventually, the mutants realize their true predicament and Apocalypse teleports away. An amnesiac and powerless Cyclops regains control of the merged form, but Apocalypse begins to re-emerge. Jean and Cable are alerted to his location in Egypt, where Jean in the end manages to free Cyclops by telepathically tearing out Apocalypse's essence from her husband's body, rendering Apocalypse in an incorporeal astral form, which Cable apparently destroys using his Psimitar. Blood of Apocalypse Due to the events of M-Day, in which most of the mutants lost their powers, Apocalypse was revealed to be alive and well. The techno-organic virus, with which he long ago infected Cable, was revealed to be the means by which Apocalypse's spirit reconstituted itself. With only a drop of his blood into a vat of organs and blood, the virus would rewrite the genetic code of the material within to form a body for Apocalypse. Apocalypse awakes from a slumber in a tomb in Akkaba. Apocalypse finds himself in a world with its mutant population reduced to a fraction of what it had been, only a few hundred remaining out of the millions who populated earth prior to his demise at Cable's hands. Reappearing inside a Sphinx-shaped ship, Apocalypse confronts the X-Men with his newly assembled cadre of Horsemen on the front lawn of the X-Mansion. The Horseman Famine uses his powers to cause an intense feeling of hunger and weakness in the mutants and humans on the institute grounds. Apocalypse offers the mutants an elixir; his own blood, provided they join his side. Bent on becoming the new messiah for mutant-kind, Apocalypse approaches the world leaders at the United Nations in New York and issues an ultimatum: humanity would destroy ninety percent of its own population, putting man and mutant on level ground in anticipation of the final conflict when the worthy alone would survive - or Apocalypse would unleash his meta-plague on the world and obliterate all humanity. In the end, Apocalypse's horsemen are lost, Ozymandias betrays him, and he is forced to retreat by combined assault of the X-Men and the Avengers. Ultimately, it is discovered that the Celestials lent their technology to Apocalypse, requiring as payment greater sufferings later. He attempts to embrace death as an escape from his lifelong pact, only to find himself instantly resurrected and hearing a voice: "We cannot let you die. Not yet. It is time Apocalypse… it is time". Messiah War In the future of Messiah War, a heavily weakened Apocalypse is attacked and thought to be killed by the combined power of Stryfe and Bishop. It is worthy to note that Stryfe and Bishop were more powerful than they have ever been. Although they inflicted much damage upon him, he apparently survives the attack. Afterward, he somehow contacts Archangel in the future and begs him to kill him. Archangel refuses and instead hands over some of his techno organic wing blades to him, telling Apocalypse he no longer holds any control over him. Somehow, contact with the wing blades rejuvenate Apocalypse and he offers to join forces with Archangel to kill Stryfe who is on the verge of killing X-Force, Cable, Bishop and Hope Summers. Archangel takes Apocalypse to a Celestial ship, where Apocalypse is then fully restored and wants to avenge what Stryfe did to him. Just as Stryfe is on the verge of taking Hope for himself, Apocalypse and Archangel arrive. Despite all his power, Stryfe is no match for the now fully-restored Apocalypse and is easily defeated. He turns his attention to Hope, but Archangel demands that he release her back into Cable's care. Apocalypse does so, but remarks to Cable that he will return for her eventually. As the team departs, Apocalypse takes Stryfe as his new host, effectively killing him. Powers and Abilities Powers Superhuman Strength: Apocalypse possesses superhuman strength that he can further increase by drawing upon outside energy sources; Apocalypse has shown to be strong enough to physically restrain the Hulk while the Hulk was in an enraged state. Hence, Apocalypse is capable of lifting far in excess of 100 tons. Superhuman Stamina: Apocalypse's body produces practically no fatigue toxins during physical activity. He can exert himself at peak capacity indefinitely. Invulnerability: Apocalypse is highly resistant to injury. With the Celestial modifications, this resistance to harm was amplified, making him virtually impervious to harm, although it is now possible (after his original body was destroyed) to cause him injury that would not be immediately regenerated by his power. Flight: Apocalypse can enable himself to fly, by either transforming his arms into wings, jets, or through telekinetic use. Teleportation: Apocalypse can teleport himself and others around vast distances across the planet and has shown the ability to teleport an entire fortress with him while leaving those within behind. Bio-Molecular Alteration: Apocalypse has total control over the molecular structure of his body and can alter it at will. This means that matter manipulation has no effect on him, and can adapt his molecular structure to any adversity. Apocalypse can also perform the following feats: *''Malleable Form: Apocalypse's entire body can be reshaped at will. He can alter his appearance, allow his body to become extremely malleable, maintain his full dexterity, and elongate his body or limbs. *Size Alteration: Apocalypse is able to change his size at will; he can increase or decrease the size of his body by taking on additional mass or ridding of it from a presumably extra-dimensional source. *Physical Superhuman powers: Through this ability to alter his form, Apocalypse can give himself virtually any physical superhuman power, as he can transform his arms and fists into various melee weapons. *Transmutation: Apocalypse possesses transmutation abilities, as his descendants have already proven capable of. '''Energy Generation': ability to generate energy for a number of effects, including but not limited to: *''Energy Absorption: ability to absorb energy and mass to augment the levels of both his strength and power to unlimited potentials. *Superhuman Speed: by infusing his body with energy he is able to speed up his reflexes and reaction time in which to seemingly move at super speeds. It is this ability that allows him to counteract others with super-speed powers themselves. *Force-Fields: ability to create nearly impenetrable force fields *Energy Projection: ability to project massive energy blasts of destructive force. Apocalypse can also expel energy from his body, and control it's directions. '''Telekinesis': Apocalypse possesses telekinetic abilities enabling him to levitate oneself or that of others by sheer force of will and manipulate living beings, inanimate objects and to some extent energy psionically. He can “lift” far in excess of 100+ tons of weight and can enable himself to “fly” at great speed. Virtual Immortality: Apocalypse's original body was immortal, even before being modified by the Celestial ship, he had lived for thousands of years. Apocalypse can enter a coma-like state of suspended animation during which he may recover from any wounds with the assistance of his Celestial technology. The down side of his altering by the Celestials and his enhancement was that the techno-organic virus needed to allow this to happen ravaged his body requiring him to find new ones over the years. *''Retarded Aging: His molecular rearrangement ability has allowed him to constantly renew his cells, thus he’s unable to age. *Blood of Apocalypse: As recently revealed, Apocalypse's techno-organic blood has many unique properties. With only a drop of his blood into a vat of organs, blood, etc. the virus can rewrite the genetic code of the material within to form a new body for Apocalypse. *Technology Interface: Apocalypse is able to directly interface with various technologies he has at his disposal. Abilities Apocalypse is a genius, a level of which humanity cannot comprehend, and has knowledge of certain areas of biology, primarily genetic engineering and mutation, and technology that are far in advance of contemporary science and technology. This was not merely a result of his exposure to alien technology, as he was able to make significant new advances beyond the alien materials to which he was exposed. Strength Level Superhuman Class 100 Paraphernalia Equipment Several of Apocalypse's bases have a rejuvenation chamber. Apparently Celestial technology capable of manipulating the genes of mutants giving them altogether new abilities or augmenting the ones they already possess. (The process seemingly has the effect of warping the minds of the subjects more to Apocalypse's way of thinking) Transportation Personal teleportation device. Various Celestial-tech based ships. Weapons No known weapons. Assuming various Celestial-tech based weaponry. Trivia *According to the writers at Marvel, "En Sabah Nur" translates to "The First One" in Arabic. However, the phrase actually translates into something more akin to "Good Morning". The reason is that the term is grammatically incorrect, as it should be "Sabah an-Nur", assuming that was what the Marvel writers were shooting for. It can also mean "The Seven Lights"; with "Sabah" literally meaning "seven" and "Nur" meaning "light" in Arabic. This is interesting for Islam depicts the eternal afterlife as having seven heavens, and could be a direct reference to his god-like powers. Since Apocalypse was born thousands of years before modern Arabic existed, this must either be a translation of his true name, or it is a name in Proto-Semitic that simply coincidentally resembles Arabic words. 'En Sabah Nur' can also mean "birth of light","Awakened Light",and (in literal sense)"Dawn". *A little known fact is that Apocalypse was created as a last minute replacement for the Owl, a Daredevil villain who original ''X-Factor writer Bob Layton wanted to use as X-Factor's main villain. When Layton was removed from the book and replaced with Louise Simonson, she requested that the last page of X-Factor #5 be changed to a shadowy figured named Apocalypse, as Simonson wanted a new character to be the main villain for the book. *In X-Men Next dimension, Apocalypse can be seen in one of the stage. Category:Characters Category:Mutants Category:Telekinesis Category:Psychics Category:Superhuman Strength Category:Shapeshifters Category:Superhuman Speed Category:Teleporters Category:Immortals Category:Villains